Hundreds of Vishwakarma Puja organisers across Bengal have opted for muted celebrations as they have decided to utilise the festival funds to help workers and their families — living in their areas or associated with their organisations — left jobless because of the pandemic-induced lockdown.
Though Vishwakarma Puja has always been the most important event in their annual roster, these organisers, most of whom are trade union outfits, think it is more important to stand by their co-workers than spending money to celebrate the puja, which falls on September 17.
The Bus Workers’ Union in East Burdwan’s Kalna has put up a flex at the local bus terminus to inform people about the reason for not organising the festival this year. “We have been giving doles to workers from the Vishwakarma Puja fund and therefore, we have put on hold all programmes related to Vishwakarma Puja this year,” the flex put by the Trinamul Congress-led trade union reads.
The organisers said every year, they used to spend Rs 3 lakh to celebrate Vishwakarma Puja. “We had saved Rs 4 lakh for this year’s celebrations. We have used the entire money to support our members during the lockdown and have decided to skip the festival this year,” said a Trinamul leader.
“During the lockdown, buses did not operate and now services are back but only partially. So, we dipped into our Puja funds and gave our members Rs 500 every month. We also helped them with groceries,” said Anjan Chatterjee, working president of the INTTUC.
Asish Dan, who is a conductor on the Bolpur-Suri route and attached to a bus worker’s union in Suri, said: “We are not having the festivities this year. I support the union’s decision as the Puja funds had been used to help us during lockdown. I got three supplies of essentials from the union in the past five months.”
The picture is no different in the districts of Birbhum, West Burdwan and East and West Midnapore. In East Midnapore’s industrial hub Haldia and its adjoining pockets, at least 2,500 organisers used to host Vishwakarma Puja. The festival was celebrated with rich illuminations, huge pandals and mega cultural soirees in Haldia as it is the hub of big and small industries.
Shibnath Sarkar, the working president of INTTUC in East Midnapore, said: “This year, the number of Vishwakarma Puja has dropped to 500. Most of the big budget pujas have curtailed their budgets to help workers, while the smaller ones have decided to skip the festivities. We had no option but to help jobless workers with funds kept aside for this year’s festival.”
An organiser of a big-budget puja at a leading factory said they had curtailed cultural programmes because of two reasons — avoid mass gathering and help families of workers allied to the industry.
A major battery producing unit in Haldia used to spend around Rs 10 lakh every year to celebrate Vishwakarma Puja. This year they have cut down their budget to Rs 4 lakh.
“This year all cultural events and gatherings have been called off. The fund will be used to provide free study materials to children of workers who have lost their jobs during the lockdown,” said Sekhar Majumdar, secretary of the Puja committee at the battery unit said.
As the festival has gone low-profile this year, those associated with professions linked to the festival are staring at huge losses in income.
“The illumination industry of Chandernagore used to get orders worth Rs 2 crore during Vishwakarma Puja every year. This year, it is almost zero as we do not have any big order from industrial hubs like Durgapur or Haldia. Hundreds of our workers look forward to the festival season but this year, the situation is grave for all of us,” said Babu Pal, an illumination artist in Chandernagore and secretary of Chandernagore Lights Owners’ Association.
Nandalal Jana, an idol maker in Haldia, echoes Pal.
“I used to get orders of at least 100 Vishwakarma idols till last year. This year, I have only 20 order for small-size idols,” said Jana